AF discontinues use of base decals

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt.Matt Proietti
  • Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs
WASHINGTON --  Air Force officials are working with other services to allow its people to enter installations without requiring them to display a base decal on their vehicles. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley recently ended use of the sticker, officially called a DD Form 2220, on Air Force installations due to cost, a lack of utility and long-term threats facing bases. 

The decal was developed in the 1970s as part of a vehicle registration
and traffic management system, not to bolster security, said Col. William Sellers, the Air Force chief of force protection and operations for security forces. Air Force officials began questioning the value of the vehicle registration system in 2005 due to security concerns. 

Many people incorrectly viewed the decal as being designed to bolster security, Colonel Sellers said. In actuality, the decal lessens it by identifying vehicles of Airmen and civilian workers as potential terror targets and may lure gate guards into complacency. 

In a move which took effect at McChord June 15, U.S. Protect guards and 62nd Security Forces Squadron Airmen are now using a defense identification system to scan IDs of those wanting to gain access to the base. U.S. Protect guards and 62nd SFS Airmen use hand-held scanners to run the bar codes on common access cards and drivers licenses against multiple national law enforcement databases and McChord's barment roster, said Senior Master. Sgt. William Riffenburg, 62nd Security Forces Squadron. 

If a vehicle from a Navy base is parked illegally on an Army installation, the military police can't use its DD Form 2220 to track the owner because the two services don't share vehicle databases. Instead, the police will use the license plate number or vehicle identification number to obtain information via two national systems that provide comprehensive driver, vehicle data and access to law enforcement agency information, the colonel said. 

Security forces and gate guards now check the ID of each person entering an Air Force installation, Colonel Sellers said. 

This provides better security than a base decal ever did because: The vehicle displaying it could have been sold with the decal on it. Its owner may have left the service and not removed the decal. The number on the decal could be duplicated. The decal could be counterfeited. The decal may have been removed from another vehicle. The vehicle may have been stolen. 

The Air Force has left the decision of whether or not to continue to issue decals up to each Major Command, and Air Mobility Command has let each base commander make the decision for their installation, Sergeant Riffenburg said. 

Because the sticker is a Department of Defense mandate and not an Air Force-only mandate, at joint located facilities the sister services -- such as Fort Lewis -- are still requiring the sticker to get on base, he said. 

"We haven't discontinued issuing the sticker because of the additional burden it would leave to Fort Lewis," Sergeant Riffenburg said. 

Air Force officials have asked other services to allow entry of its people to their installations by honoring their common access cards, appropriate identification or even by issuing them a DD Form 2220, which would enter them in another branch's database. In many cases, Air Force people visit other installations to shop. 

"That translates into dollars for their Soldiers, Sailors and Marines," Colonel Sellers said. "Commanders want Air Force personnel on their bases." 

(62nd Airlift Wing public affairs contributed to this article.)